What Gamban and BetBlocker Change on a Windows PC

Gamban's and BetBlocker's websites do not say which settings their Windows apps change. To find out, GuardianBlock, which makes a competing Windows blocker, installed each one on a disposable Windows 11 Home test PC on October 13, 2026: BetBlocker 3.6.7 and then Gamban 5.8.4, each on the same clean copy of the PC. In each state the test recorded the PC's network and browser settings and looked up the same 15 names. With each product on, it also opened pages in Edge.

On the test PC, both products blocked seven well-known gambling sites at the same layer. Each pointed the PC's DNS, the lookup that turns a name into an address the PC can connect to, at its own internet DNS service, and locked the browsers' secure DNS setting to that service too. None of the seven sites returned its real address. The same change also stopped two of three office-style network names from resolving, the kind of name a work PC uses to reach a file server or an intranet page.

How Gamban and BetBlocker work on Windows

Gamban is a paid subscription from Gamban Ltd, a UK private company. BetBlocker is free and is run by a charity registered in Scotland.

Does Gamban change DNS on Windows? On the test PC, yes. Gamban 5.8.4 set the PC's DNS servers to its own internet DNS service as soon as it was installed, and the setting was the same after the restart it asked for. BetBlocker 3.6.7, the version its website served that day, made the same kind of change when its block was switched on; installing it alone did not change the PC's DNS or browser settings.

Both then wrote machine-wide browser policies. In Chrome, Edge, Brave and Chromium, each switched on secure DNS, which sends the browser's own lookups over an encrypted connection, and pointed it at the same service. Each also locked Firefox's matching setting, with no exceptions listed for local network names. Locking the browsers keeps them on the same filter as the rest of the PC. Brave and Chromium were not installed, so their policies were written but never used, and Firefox was checked through its policy settings, not by loading pages.

BetBlocker also added 26 connection-blocking filters to the Windows Filtering Platform, the layer the Windows firewall is built on, and a startup entry that launches it in the background at sign-in. Gamban added no filters. Neither product added a VPN, a proxy, a network driver or a root certificate of its own, and ordinary HTTPS sites kept their usual certificates.

Each vendor describes its method in its own words. On its iPhone App Store listing, Gamban says: “Gamban uses secure DNS technology to block gambling websites and apps.” Its home page describes “a multi-layered approach to blocking”. BetBlocker's desktop help page describes a Local Block that “enforced the block inside your machine”, a VPN Server Block “enforced externally to your machine, via our VPN”, or both. None of the 3.6.7 screens captured offered that choice or said which type was in use. BetBlocker says that if you have technical issues, its support team “should be able to help or even switch your restriction to a different restriction type”.

What the test PC could still look up

In each state the PC looked up the same 15 names through Windows' normal name lookup: seven well-known gambling sites, five everyday sites, and three office-style names on the test network. The grid follows them through four states of the PC.

Can you use Gamban or BetBlocker on a work computer?

Gamban answers that question on its Android app listing: “While you can install it on your work device we don't recommend you do, since you might experience issues accessing work-related resources.” It suggests asking “your company's IT department to review it and install it for you”. The Windows pages read for this test do not say the same. Gamban's licence, in a clause limiting its liability for business losses, says: “The Software is for domestic and private use.”

BetBlocker's licence covers use “solely for your personal, non-commercial purposes”. Of the two, BetBlocker is the one that warns about the local network on its website: some versions use a VPN, its FAQ says, and “you may not be able to access other devices on the local network – like printers”. The Windows version tested used no VPN; the effect seen here came through DNS.

On the test PC, that effect worked like this. Before either product went on, the test PC got office-style names from the local network's own DNS. Once it asked an internet DNS service instead, two names with the network's local suffix, another PC's full name and the test PC's own, came back as “does not exist”. Asked directly, Gamban's secure DNS service did not know the office name either. In Edge, typing another PC's full network name gave the browser's ordinary “can't reach this page” error under both products.

The effect was narrower than a dead network. A one-word PC name still resolved, probably through Windows' own local name lookup rather than DNS, though the test did not record which method answered. A test file share reached by its IP address stayed readable in every state; that share was on the test PC itself. No share was opened by name, so a failed drive was not observed. Which names fail depends on how an office names its machines, which suggests that a shared drive or intranet page reached by a full network name is where a work PC would notice.

The two products also showed up differently on the PC. Gamban did not appear in Settings > Installed apps; a search for it returned “We couldn’t find anything to show here.” It had no Start-menu or desktop shortcut and no tray icon, and ran in the background. That matches Gamban's own statement that others “will not be able to see that you have Gamban installed on your devices”. The same page says “Installing Gamban will not affect other users on the network.” The test is consistent with that: the changes were on the test PC itself. BetBlocker appeared in Installed apps and, in its own words, “BetBlocker will run quietly in the background of your device”.

An employer's PC is a question for its IT team. For a personal laptop that is also used for work, the guide to blockers on a work-used laptop covers what to check before installing one, and the guide to blockers that skip VPN and DNS filtering maps the layers a blocker can work at.

What each vendor says, beside what the test saw

BetBlocker's settings stayed after the app was gone

BetBlocker's app is clear about what a restriction is meant to do. Its setup screen, inside the app, says: “At the end of this period your Gambling Exclusion will be automatically lifted.” It also says: “Even deleting/uninstalling this tool will NOT remove this restriction.” The website FAQ is more detailed. For blocks of up to a month, “the exclusion will be automatically lifted at the end of the period you selected”. For two months or more, “the exclusion will continue indefinitely unless you specifically deactivate it”. Once a restriction period has concluded and the user chooses to deactivate it, “the restriction will remain in place for one further week”, a period BetBlocker calls a Cooling Off Period.

After BetBlocker's own uninstaller had run and the app was gone, the DNS change, all the browser policies, the 26 filters, the startup entry and its program folders were still there. They were checked within about two minutes and before any restart. The 15 lookups gave the same results as they had with BetBlocker on. On a PC that also reaches office names, the office-name effect outlasted the app.

What the test could not show is the end of a block. Whether either product puts the PC's DNS and browser settings back when a BetBlocker restriction ends or a Gamban licence runs out was not observed, and neither vendor's public pages say. Gamban's help page says “all Gamban installations are final” and that “Once your licence period comes to an end, Gamban will automatically be removed from your device without the need for any action from you.”

How the test was run

• One disposable Hyper-V virtual machine running Windows 11 Home, build 26200.8037, with one local administrator account. Each product started from the same clean snapshot, and its changes were compared with that clean state.
• BetBlocker 3.6.7, set to a fixed-period Gambling Restriction with no custom sites added and its other optional lists off. Gamban 5.8.4 on its 7-day free trial. Gamban's help page says: “There are no differences between paid, trial or promotional accounts.”
• Captured in each state: DNS settings, browser policies, Windows Filtering Platform filters, services, startup entries, installed apps, certificates, proxy and VPN settings, and network adapters.
• The lookups: 15 names, once per state, through Windows' normal name lookup. The office-style names came from Hyper-V's built-in local network, which stood in for an office's own DNS. There was no company domain, corporate VPN or proxy.
• Pages were opened in Edge 155. Chrome 150 and Firefox 152 were checked through their policy settings, not by loading pages, and Brave and Chromium were not installed.

This is one PC, one version of each product and one sample per state, on one day. It does not measure how well either product blocks gambling, and later versions may behave differently. A real company domain, a corporate VPN, a standard-user account and BetBlocker's password-based Parental Controls mode were not tested, and the end of a block was not observed for either product.

GuardianBlock is responsible for keeping this page current. Both vendors' pages are rechecked about every 30 days and whenever either ships a new Windows version, and the date at the top changes when the article does. If you work for Gamban or BetBlocker and something here is out of date, tell GuardianBlock and it will be corrected.

Where GuardianBlock stands

GuardianBlock for Windows will be available soon. GuardianBlock does not alter DNS, hosts, VPN, firewall, proxy, routes, adapters, SMB mappings, mapped drives, WSL mounts, or work-network configuration. This software boundary does not imply compatibility with an employer setup, VPN, proxy, managed device, or network. GuardianBlock protects browsing in Chrome, Edge, and Firefox on an eligible Windows 11 PC. Public launch supports personal unmanaged Windows 11 Home/Pro x64 devices. Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Android, Linux, ARM64, shared computers, and work-managed devices are not supported at launch. The no DNS, VPN, or firewall blocking page lists what GuardianBlock changes on a PC and the network settings it leaves alone.